Climate change is one of the most important issues in this recent era throughout the world. Bangladesh is influenced by the impact of climate change. Eventually, our country is at the high risk of natural disasters because of its geographical location as well as some other reasons such as having low lying landscape, poverty, population, illiteracy, alteration of seasonal pattern, low-quality infrastructure etc. Eventually, the socio-economic status of our country is very much vulnerable than some other countries in the running world. So many studies and researches have conducted on the adverse impact of Climate change in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a developing country but it is burdened with a large number of population and about 80% of the land is floodplains. Bangladesh is the sixth disaster-prone country in the world (Global Climate Risk Index (GCRI) -2017, Prepared by German). The report also highlighted that about 0.48 people die because of the adverse impact of the climate change out of one lac people.
Impact of climate change on different sectors:
1. Agriculture and Climate change:
Agriculture is one of the most important sectors in many countries in the world. Because of the impact of climate change, the agricultural sector is impacted tremendously. The rate of crop production decrease because of changing the pattern of temperature, moisture, etc. Especially, plant growth is stunted. As the sea level is increasing day by day because of melting the ices of the polar regions, the saline water is entered into the coastal regions, for example, the Kuakata Sea beach (Bangladesh) is impacted because of climate change. The saline water is entered into the agricultural zone of the coastal regions. Thus, agricultural land loses their productivity gradually. Even, Climate change acts as a brake. As we have a huge number of population in this world, we need more crop production to maintain the demand for food. Due to global warming, the quantity of food production is going down.
2. Impact on water resource:
The alternative name of water is life. Ultimately, we can not think a single day without using this water resource. It is affected tremendously because of climate change. As the temperature of the atmosphere is increasing day by day, the pattern of the water cycle is highly affected in many countries of the world. The water crisis is an important issue in this recent world and the main reason for this problem is climate change. On the other hand, there are some countries in the world that may face some vulnerable problems because of changing the climate. The sea level is rising and the rate of flooding, waterborne disease, crop production, damage to different infrastructure is increasing gradually. As Bangladesh is located in that kind of geographical location, the sea level rise can be very much hazardous for the people of the country, especially the population of the coastal regions of our country.
3. Coastal areas and marine resources:
The coastal areas of some countries face the impact of climate change. The temperature of the water of the coastal reason is increasing day by day and for this reason, marine life faces many problems. Even, the concentration of the carbon dioxide is increased and the surface water of the marine water absorb the CO2 and the pH of the water is also increased. Maximum aquatic life can’t sustain in the acidic environment of the water. Coral reefs are an important resource of the coastal regions. But because of increasing the level of acidity of the water, the formation of coral reef is also impacted badly. Because of increasing the temperature of the surface water, the risk of coral bleaching is also increased. Many species of fishes are moving to the polar regions because of the impact of climate change. The rate of storm surge and precipitation of the coastal regions is also increased because of global warming.
4. Impact on forestry:
Climate has an impact on the structure and function of forest ecosystems and plays an essential role in forest health. A changing climate may worsen many of the threats to forests, such as pest outbreaks, fires, human development, and drought. Climate changes, directly and indirectly, affect the growth and productivity of forests as the temperature, rainfall, weather, and other factors are changed. Besides, elevated levels of carbon dioxide have an effect on the growth of different plant species. These changes influence complex forest ecosystems in many ways.
5. Impact on biodiversity:
Biodiversity is an important phenomenon in this recent world. It is a matter of sorrow that there is an impact of climate change on biodiversity. The temperature increases and the water level rises because of climate change. Thus the total biome of the earth is also impacted. There are so many trees and animals in the polar reasons that are adapted to the cold environment. But the ice and glaciers are melting and a suitable environment for the lives are also decreasing.
6. Migration of the people to the Urban areas:
Because of increasing the sea level, the people from the coastal regions are migrating to the higher land of a country. Bangladeshis have already started to move away from the lowest-lying villages in the river deltas of the Bay of Bengal. There are 5 million slum inhabitants in Dhaka city. Among them, about 1.5 million people are from the coastal regions of our country (Bangladesh).
7. The scarcity of drinking water:
Water is an important natural resource. The quality of drinking water is an important issue for this running world. The quality of water is impacted because of climate change as well. Climate change may affect the water quality and quantity by increasing precipitation, decreasing precipitation, and increasing water temperatures of lakes and streams. The available freshwater is also decreased because of sea-level rise. Different parameters of drinking water such as pH, EC (Electrical Conductivity), TDS( Total Dissolved Solids), TSS( Total Suspended Solid), COD( Chemical Oxygen Demand), BOD(Biological Oxygen Demand) are also changed negatively. Thus, we are affected because of not getting pure drinking water due to climate change.
In a nutshell, we the people are impacted badly because of climate change. As this is a global issue, people from every country should be aware of the impact of climate change. By taking some effective policies we can decrease the impact of climate change such as greening the community, energy efficiency, choosing a renewable resource, eating wisely. We should plant more trees to maintain the level of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere as well. In addition, we must be very much sincere to this vulnerable disaster and the governments of different countries should be careful to take effective policies to combat this challenge.
Author:
Md. Nayem Hasan Munna
Soil and Environmental Sciences,
The University of Barishal,
Barishal, Bangladesh.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.nayemhasanmunna.info